McGorty, in a five-page complaint dated Jan. 5, 2011, said Tortora was "negligent in his duties" for ordering his staff to do inferior inspections of city buildings and for not inspecting Shelton High School "in over 20 years."

"What bothers me the most is the continuous, non-abated life safety code violations that exist in our public school(s) and I am not allowed to assist in the correction of the violations," McGorty wrote. He added that he was "not allowed into the high school or the intermediate school to reinspect."

McGorty said that if the safety code violations were not corrected, it would "put people's lives in jeopardy." He added, "Today, none of our schools have had a full life safety code inspection," and "We have been ordered by him (Tortora) not to do a full inspection of any schools -- `Only do walk thru.' "

An investigation by the Office of the State Fire Marshal into the allegations of fire code violations found 576 of them at the high school. The violations were outlined in a 119-page report released last month by the OSFM. As a result, the state fire marshal has scheduled an informal meeting for June 19, at which time Tortora can answer allegations in the report.

If the matter isn't resolved at the meeting, it would go to a formal hearing, which could result in Tortora's fire marshal certification being revoked, Jeffrey Beckham, spokesman for the state office, said Monday.

McGorty said in his complaint that due to Tortora's "total disregard for public safety," the state implemented a new law that requires all fire marshals to inspect all schools, public and private. McGorty said it's called the "Shelton bill" by life safety code professionals throughout the state.

But Tortora, in his written response to McGorty's allegations, said the bill wasn't the result of his "disregard for public safety" and that McGorty's claim that he put lives in jeopardy is "completely without fact" and "baseless."

Tortora said that "all schools are sufficiently inspected" and that "walk thru inspections are done for a reason." He didn't elaborate.

As for the Shelton High School violations, Tortora said the city is "presently working on bringing" the school into compliance.

McGorty declined to comment Tuesday, citing a pending civil action filed against him by Tortora charging defamation of character. Tortora could not be reached Tuesday for comment.

McGorty's complaint was initially sent to the city's administrative assistant, who sent it to Ramon Sous, the city's corporation counsel.

Sous forwarded the complaint to the State Fire Marshal's office on March 3, 2011, seeking help in investigating the matter.